Therapeutic Guidelines: Oral and Dental. Version 2.

Melbourne: Therapeutic Guidelines Limited; 2012.221 pages

Version 2 of Therapeutic Guidelines: Oral and Dental has included two new chapters, and updated all other sections. The target audience for these guidelines is not only oral health practitioners, but also general medical practitioners and other health professionals who may be called upon to provide advice on dental matters and remedies.

For dentists and oral health practitioners the guidelines provide a well cross-referenced coverage of drugs and therapeutic regimens used in general dental practice. They are presented in an easy-to-read style with sufficient detail for a practitioner to make sensible clinical decisions on a patient’s needs and options with respect to common drugs used in modern dentistry. Interactions between a patient’s medical condition and therapy impacting on dental care have been reviewed in the light of contemporary best evidence and practice.

The sections on dental caries and periodontal diseases would seem very useful for medical and allied health clinicians, as too the specific section on ‘management of dental problems for medical practitioners’. The use of fluorides in the ‘dental caries’ section however is already outdated, with the acceptance by the Therapeutic Goods Administration of over-the-counter fluoride toothpaste now containing up to 1500 ppm fluoride ion. Further, the use of high fluoride toothpaste containing 5000 ppm is now an accepted part of oral hygiene for dentate residents in residential aged-care facilities.¹

These guidelines will be a useful reference for all oral health, medical and allied health clinicians.